Roster
of Company
H, 26th Regiment
South Carolina Volunteers

The
Twenty-Sixth
Infantry Regiment was organized at Charleston, South
Carolina
in September, 1862, by consolidating the 6th and 9th
Battalions South
Carolina
Infantry because the two regiments were essentially
wiped out in the
first
summer of the war in Virginia. After serving in South
Carolina, the
Twenty-Sixth
moved to Mississippi, was placed in N.G. Evans'
Brigade, and confronted
the enemy at Jackson, Mississippi. The expectation was
that they were to
relieve
Vicksburg which was under siege by General Grant.
Before dawn on the
7th
of July, news was received that Vicksburg had been
surrended on the
4th.
General Evans' brigage was ordered back to South
Carolina and arrived
in
Charleston late July of 1863.

On
Morris Island,
At Fort Wagner, the 26th threw back the Federals
including the famous
54th
Massachusetts. Abondoning Morris Island, the 26th was
transferred to
Fort
Sumter. They repelled the "Boat Attack" in September
of 1863 and
continued
to defend Fort Sumter throughout the Fall. They fired
upon the Yankees
on Morris Island where the Federals had set up heavy
artillery and were
bombarding Fort Sumter.

In October of 1863,
there
were 343 men present for duty in the 26th
Regiment.

The
regiment
was sent to Virginia in March of 1864 where they were
assigned to
Elliott's
and Wallace's Brigade. They arrived on May 17th. ON
the night of the
19th,
they moved across the Appomattox River to Clay's farm
or Warebottom
Church
were they met the enemy. On the 18th of June 1864 the
Petersburg siege
began and lasted until April 2, 1865. Participating in
this long seige
the regiment sustained 72 casualities at the
Petersburg mine explosion
and lost many men at Saylor's Creek.

The
Twenty-Sixth
Regiment ended the war at Appomattox surrendering with
8 officers and
113
men having lost 222 men in just one and a half years.
The field
officers
of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment were Colonel Alexander D.
Smith,
Lieutenant
Colonels Stephen D. M. Byrd, and Joshua H. Hudson,
Majors Ceth S. Land,
and Cornelius D. Rowell.

The 26th
Infantry Regiment
participated in the following battles:

Jackson
Siege,
Mississippi (July
1863)

Charleston
Harbor,
South Carolina
(August - September 1863)

Bermuda
Hundred,
Virginia (17
May - 16 June 1864)

Petersburg
Siege,
Virginia (June
1864 - April 1865)

The
Crater,
Virginia (30 July
1864)

Ft.
Stedman,
Virginia (25 March
1865)

Five
Forks,
Virginia (1 April1865)

Appomattox
Court
House, Virginia
(9 April 1865)

The
following
letter from Colonel
J.H. Hudson to Colonel J.P. Thomas was dated:

"Bennetsville,
South
Carolina
July 2, 1898."

My Dear Sir,The rolls are
the same
Except
the name of Capt. Dickenson who must have been the
first Capt. before
the
reorganization of the Volunteer Army in May 62 when
all enlisted for
the
War. Co. C & H of the 26 S.C.V. originally
constituted Byrd's
Battalion.
Located at McClellansville in Dec. 1862. these three
companies were
consolidated
with the seven companies of the 9th Battalion and came
to us at Church
Flats.Dickinson must
have
evidently
Resigned or were left out upon the reorganization at
all events,
Wheeler
was the Capt. when the Co. came to us and became Co. H
26 S.C.V. The
roll
headed by the name of Capt. Dickinson has been made
out by me who
mistook
the letters of the Co. whilst the roll headed by Capt.
Wheeler was made
out by a different person but who has been correct
letter Viz. H.
Therefore
each roll must be lettered H. or Dickerson's roll must
be changed from
D. to H.

Yours truly,J.H. Hudson

Joshua
Hilary Hudson
was born on 29 January 1832 at Chester, S.C.

He
married the former
Miss Mary Miller on 4 May 1854.

He
died on
22 July 1909 at Greenville, South
Carolina.

J.H. Hudson was commanding
officer
of the
26th SC Regiment at the Battle of Five Forks which
was fought on
April 1, 1865. During that battle, he was severely
wounded and
transported
to the Pegram House (where the depot agent lived)
at Ford's
Station,
about seven miles from the Five Forks battlefield on the
South Side
Railroad.

At the Pegram House, Hudson
shared
a room
with Willie Pegram, the famous Confederate Colonel of
Artillery, who
had
been wounded in a similar fashion- and not too far
from where
Colonel
Hudson fell with his wound. The following morning, Col.
Hudson awoke
and
inquired about Colonel Pegram. He was told that Pegram
had died during
the night and was buried in the yard below.

On the morning of April 4,
1865,
Colonel
Hudson fell into the hands of the Union Army, as they
were passing
through
the area. On this day, he was visited by General Grant,
who had his
personal
surgeon examine Hudson and left orders with the Guard
stationed there
that
Col. Hudson was to remain at the Pegram House,
unmolested, until he was
able to get about from his wound.

On May 2, 1865, Colonel Hudson
received his
Parole Papers from a visiting General Joshua L.
Chamberlain of Maine.
Of
course, Chamberlain has been made into a post-war hero
for his gallant
deeds at the Battle of Gettysburg. After a total of six
weeks, Colonel
Hudson
began the trek back home to Bennettsville, South
Carolina., where he was restored
to
his family.

His wife, the former Miss Mary
Miller, had
been told that her husband was dead on the field at Five
Forks. As we
might imagine, his homecoming was indeed a very special
one!

In the years after the war,
Colonel
Hudson was
very active across the state of South Carolina. He
served as Circuit
Judge
from 1878 to 1894. After that, he maintained a private
law practice-
and
was called upon often to help dedicate many Confederate
markers and
monuments
across the Palmetto State.

Joshua Hilary Hudson was a
brother
to Dabney
Rush Hudson, who was the great-great grandfather of
Hudson Alexander of
Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Dabney Hudson served
throughout the war
as a member of the 13th SC Regiment. (Hudson Alexander
submitted the
photo
and biographical information about his co-lateral
ancestor, Colonel
J.H.
Hudson.)

The
roster
below, except
where indicated by a *, comes from J.H. Hudson's
letter.

If your ancestor is missing
from
this roster,
please let me know.

I will be happy to add him
after
receiving
a copy of your documentation.

Oliver, William died
May 23,
1864. He was
born in Marion Dist., S.C. ##

Osborne, Joseph W. Clarendon
County,
died
of disease in Georgia 1863

Perkins, John P. (Corp.)
Sumter
County, died
at Petersburg, Va. May 23, 1864 ##

Piggot, E. Melton Sumter
County,
died at
Richmond

Player, M.C. Clarendon
County

Reynolds, Pleasent T. Darlington
County.*******He
was born in November 1836 and died 26 Jan 1920 in
Arkansas. His
certificate
of release as a prisoner from the Point Lookout,
MD prison camp of war
is dated 17 June 1865.

Robertson, Samuel Clarendon
County,
discharged
at Camp Palmer

Robertson, Ellison Clarendon
County

Rolong, Jacob Clarendon
County

Rush, Alvin W. Clarendon
County

Scurry, John C.Williamsburg
County

Sims, Thomas W.Darlington
County,
died of
disease at Jackson, Mississippi ,1863

Smiley, James Clarendon
County

Smith, Samuel E.Clarendon
County

Smith, Samuel Clarendon
County

Thornhill, Benjamin B.Clarendon
County

Truluck, James Clarendon
County,
captured
near Farmville April 6, 1865, sent to Point Lookout
Prison, released
July,
1865

In about 1990, Paul
Kraft,
who lives in the Gluckstadt,
Mississippi, an area just south west of
Canton, Mississippi found a
button embossed with the Palmetto tree
insignia. He had been searching for War
Between the States relics.

How this button came to be in this
area had always puzzled him
until he visited this website, honoring
Company H of the 26th Regiment
from Sumter and Clarendon, South
Carolina.

Upon discovering that Company H of the
26th Regiment SCV had engaged in battle
in
the area where he found the button, he
now feels that the mystery
has been solved.

Proudly, as with many folks west of the
Mississippi, Paul has
deep roots in South Carolina. His great
- great - great grandfather,
Sebastian Kraft was from near Sedalia,
in Union County, South Carolina.
Paul's ancestor is buried there,
in the family cemetery just north
of his home, the old Minter house.

If
you had an ancestor who served with Company H,
you may imagine
that the button possibly belonged to your
great-great-great
grandfather. You now know that a man who
cherishes our shared history
and southern roots
found this button many years after it was lost
by another man who was
from South Carolina. Paul keeps it in
rememberance of men from Sumter and Clarendon
Counties, brave men, who
traveled far from
home, to fight and sacrifice for a cause in
which they believed.